Two seasoned stalkers, Otrok and Grad, make their score and find the priceless artifact “Compass,” rushing to the customer for its sale. Their route runs through the anomalous Lake, to the north of which, emitting waves of energy, lies an abandoned military base. Ahead on the route is the accursed place—the Metallurgical Plant—where stalkers vanish without a trace. And this would have been just the most ordinary raid if the Zone didn’t have plans for two experienced drifters.